Polymath [Paperback]

John Brunner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 1982

Colonising a new planet requires much more than just settling on a newly discovered island of Old Earth. New planets were different in thousands of ways, different from Earth and from each other. Any of those differences could mean death and disaster to a human settlement. When a ship filled with refugees from a cosmic catastrophe crash-landed on such an unmapped world, their outlook was precarious. Their ship was lost, salvage had been minor, and everything came to depend on one bright young man accidentally among them. He was a trainee planet-builder. It would have been his job to foresee all the problems necessary to set up a safe home for humanity. But the problem was that he was a mere student - and he had been studying the wrong planet. (First published 1974)

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: DAW (September 2, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879977663
• ISBN-13: 978-0879977665
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 3.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,849,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lord of the Flies, but less gruelling, October 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Polymath (Paperback)

Two lifeships crash on an uninhabited planet, and their passengers must struggle to survive.

The storyline is fairly simple adventure/survival, with lots of detail. It is somewhat like Golding's classic, but less gruelling, and with a bit more faith in human nature.

First of a trilogy: 2. The Avengers of Carrig 3. The Repairmen of Cyclops

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Polymath Good early Brunner tale, July 9, 2009

By 

Paul Brooks (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polymath (Paperback)

John Brunner's novel Polymath, written early in his career, is a gem and highly recommended. This tale about survival on an alien planet by shiploads of refugees escaping from a home world with a star going nova is not very original. In these types of stories we are confronted with, well, the usual: deadly flora and fauna, hostile climate conditions, boisterous settlers and inadequate resources. Brunner uses these familiar themes to create, yes, a fascinating backdrop, but the interaction of diverse character types makes this book exceptional. John Brunner is, in my estimation, a brilliant writer of Science Fiction whose body of works has disappeared from bookshelves since his untimely death in 1995. This book is an excellent introduction to a very underrated writer. Note to readers: there are two versions of this book one published in 1963 and one in 1974. The edition published in 1963 is shorter and substantially different than the 1974 version. This review is based upon the 1974 edition.

2.0 out of 5 stars Did not earn a permament place on my bookshelf, November 26, 2010

By 

Julie W. Capell "notthe1" (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polymath (Paperback)

After their sun goes nova, two groups of survivors find themselves marooned on a faraway planet. Cut off even from each other, the two groups follow two distinct paths: one attempts to organize itself around more or less democratic structures and the other descends into "Lord of the Flies" savagery. The majority of the action in the first part of the novel revolves around showing how difficult it is to maintain a civilized social order in the face of extreme deprivation and hardship. Each of several main characters reacts differently to the situation, and these personal dramas also fuel the novel's development. From the p-o-v of this female reader, the sub-plot involving the female characters was incomprehensible, truly, I could not understand what was supposedly happening to them nor why they reacted as they did. None of the female characters came across as particularly well-developed. But once the two groups encounter one another again, the book loses this more interesting, multiple perspective and focuses on one individual, the eponymous "Polymath," a genius-in-training, and his personal quest to unify the survivors. In the end, the book's message "planet-builders dare not fail" is simply not universal enough to rank this novel a permanent place on my bookshelf.